Imagine this: You’re suffering from bad grades at school, your parents are always scolding you about the bad grades you’ve been getting, and your “friends” have been gossipping about you to other people. You are depressed and you just feel that you just want to escape reality. You go to your room and shut your door. You tried to relax on your bed and go on your phone to distract yourself, it doesn’t work out. You listened to happy music to try and boost your mood up, that doesn’t work out either. You go to your mirror and say to yourself, “Why am I such a failure?”. You go to your bathroom and try to find one of the sharpest things you own, a razor. You wanted to feel numb, so you took a shot at it. Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever done “it”? If your answers are yes to both questions, then let me tell you this, you’re a victim of self-harming.

The word “self-harming” speaks for itself. Self-harming is when someone harms themselves because of certain reasons; like anxiety, loneliness, insecurities, etc. People usually start to self-harm around the age of 14 and it can go on until you’re 20. Did you know that self-harming can sometimes lead to people committing suicide? People usually go through behaviors such as an eating disorder, anxiety disorder, or even depression (“healthyplace,” Sept. 24, 2015). In my class, I took a poll about how much people thought about doing it and how much people have done it. There are 25 people in total in my class and about 16 people have done it. Can you believe that? It’s kind of saddening to see how much people have thought about it and done it. You can start self-harming at any age, but I’m here to help you to avoid harming yourself.

There are some ways to avoid self-harming. One way to avoid self-harming is by distracting yourself by doing something you like to do; for example watching your favorite television show or movie. Another way to get it out your system is by writing down your thoughts. I’ve dealt with self-harm before, and I used these methods to refrain myself from cutting. Some more ways to avoid it is by listening to music, drawing/painting, positive-talking yourself, etc. (“wikihow,” 2016). I also created milestones to help me continue being clean, like as of right now, I’m 5 months clean and counting. Those milestones help by letting you know how far you’ve gone being clean without self-harming. According to my research, people say that some of these methods helped them; believe me, it really does. There are many other ways to avoid harming yourself, but some people think differently about people who self-harm.

In other people’s opinion, they think the ones who self-harm do it for attention. Well, it’s not. Self-harm is when people express how they feel. Why would someone harm themselves just to get noticed? There are other ways to “get attention” that doesn’t involve one hurting themselves (“selfharm”). Some people harm themselves because of the way they feel. Some people harm themselves because of what’s going on in their lives. There are many other reasons on to why people harm themselves, but not most people do it for attention.

In conclusion, people who self-harm go through a lot of things in their daily life. There are people who self-harm at a young age. You can avoid self-harming in many ways. It’s not often for people to harm themselves for attention. Just remember that you’re not going through this alone, there are people by your side.